Back in May I was surfing around the Minnesota government website reading through the statutes concerning collector cars. Found an interesting clause in it that states if a car is 10 years old and only 500 units of that make and model were sold in the United States, it would qualify as a collector car. Of course I then thought, hmmm, I have a bunch of cars that are over 10 years old.
I have a 99 3000GT VR4, a 95 3000GT Spyder VR4, and a 95 Stealth R/T TT. All of those I knew were hovering or under the 500 mark. So first I contacted Mitsubishi about my 99 VR4 since its tabs were due at the end of May. I received a letter from Mitsubishi stating that 274 99 VR4s were sold in the United States. (this varies slightly from the wiki page stating 287) So then I was off to the DMV to apply for collector plates. I did get a little grief from them since my 99 is only 12 years old. (collector cars in MN are suppose to be 20 years old). But I showed them the statue referring to the 500 units or less made. I paid for my plates and then four weeks later, I got them in the mail:
http://mn3s.org/99-collector.jpg
Then I started to work on my 95 Stealth and 95 Spyder. I was worried about getting any information out of Chrysler since they pretty much don't care about the Stealth. But I did get a letter out of them stating 365 95 Stealth R/T TTs were sold in the United States. Unfortunately, the Spyder just missed the 500 unit cutoff. There were 520 95 3000GT Spyder VR4s sold in the US according to Mitsubishi.
So I was able to submit the paperwork to get collector plates for my 95 Stealth. I haven't got them yet since the MN government had a nice little shutdown in June, but I should be getting them anytime. The Spyder will have to wait three more years until it hits 20 years old.
There are a couple of really nice benefits for collector plates in Minnesota. No more buying tabs for it, EVER! Also, you don't need to run a front plate when you have collector plates. One more possible benefit is window tinting. In MN cars are only suppose to have 50% tint. It very vague whether this law applies to collector cars. I may have to test that one sometime. LOL
I just changed my signature picture. After this whole process I really realized just how rare of a collection of 3/Ses I've gathered.
later,
Curt
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